Synchronicity

It's a shame I'm not answerable for the sick leave I take, because this was great.

Beck, my boss, went to a funeral, Thursday. It was in Geelong, she went with her brother, she took the whole day off. She told me yesterday, at work, that her brother and his wife had caught the same bug I had had.

Really? I asked. (Laughing to myself)

Did you go to the doctor? asked S, one of the other girls from our office.

No, chimed in Beck, it's a virus, there's no point.

Same symptoms? I asked, trying to keep my incredulity hidden.

Yes. They had a dinner party and a number of guests came down with it, said Beck. Initially, they were worried that it was food poisoning.

Really? I said.

Yes, it came on with a headache, followed by nausea, without vomiting,

No, I didn't vomit either, I added smooth as silk. But I felt like it for 2 days, I said to S.

Stomach pains and diarrhoea, followed by feeing fluey, said Beck.

What could I say? I took the Friday off with my stock standard sick day excuse of a migraine. Sunday night I had diarrhoea, which I always get after taking E's, which I used as an excuse when I slept till the wee hours of Monday morning and couldn't face work. Tuesday morning, I couldn't stop coughing from all the pot I'd smoked from the previous three days, so I said whatever it was that I had had gone to my chest.

It's nasty the things that are going round, said S.

Beck agreed.

It came on so suddenly, I said.

That's what my brother said too, said Beck.

I quietly chuckled to myself as the conversation moved on. The often repeated mantra of my good friend Jill came into my head. You lead a charmed life, Christian Fletcher.

Face of an angel, my aunties used to say to me as a child, heavy on the irony.